A/N - Ahh my loyal reviewers how you rock.

Hills of Eire- I'll be incorporating your character into the story soon. Thanks for lending it to me. Let me know if anyone strikes your fancy as a love interest if you want one as I go along. You'll have to wait and see about both Emma and Diamond. I have plans for them both ; )

Callista-bella- Thanks for coming back and reading this story! I appreciate your reviews, thank you so much.

Angelfish7- Of course more Striker. She's in the story now, ; )

Kloppman nodded at Spot, Sadie and Diamond as they entered the lodging house. Spot had used some of his winnings from the track to buy them hot dogs. Diamond had picked at hers before turning slightly green. Spot had deftly taken her food and finished it himself, looking at her in curiosity. She ignored him, speaking mostly to Sadie.
A few of the younger boys stopped playing marbles to gape up at Spot in awe as they reached the boy's bunkroom. Jack, Race, Mush, Kid Blink, Snitch, Skittery, Specs, Dutchy, David, and Bumlets sat around the battered table in the corner, cigarettes or cigars hanging out of respective mouths, brows furrowed in concentration. Jack looked up and his eyes glowed warmly at Diamond before he slapped down two cards and waited for Race to deal him replacements. Looking slightly pleased, which could also mean he was bluffing, Cowboy spat into his hand and solemnly shook Spot's ink-stained own.
"How's it goin' Trouble?" Sadie winked at Jack and putting her hand on the nape of Racetrack's neck peered at his cards. Racetrack made a noise of protest around the stub of his cigar but grinned when she swatted at his head playfully.
"Twenty cents, that's me last bid." Kid Blink threw his coins on the table and fanned his hand out in front of him. Groans arose as the others either threw their cards down in disgust or carefully placed them on the table, eyes darting from his to theirs to make sure they hadn't beaten him. Jack threw up a hand and laughed before meeting Spot's gaze.
"Business meetin' Kelly?" The two rose and made their way over towards the window that led to the fire escape. Sadie watched Spot saunter over for a moment, a half-smile on her face. He carried himself regally for somebody who lived on the streets most of the time. Feeling a heavy weight land on her shoulders, she bent forward as Ink leapt on her.
"Where's my man!" Laughing, she dumped Ink onto the floor and exchanged smiles with Cloudy and Sorrow. Ink jumped to her feet and badgered Sadie for news about Pirate. Clearly put out that he hadn't chosen to accompany Spot and Sadie to Manhattan, she flopped down onto Snoddy's bunk, eliciting a complaint from the boy that was quickly silenced with a well-placed elbow. Affronted, Snoddy rose from his bed and joined the group at the table.
"Pirate asked about you today Ink." Ink's dark face immediately brightened, and she snatched a cigarette from Snoddy's stash.
"Well God bless the boy then. I ain't givin' him the time of day for nothin'." Lighting the smoke, she held it out to Sadie who took a few puffs before handing it back. Darting a glance over at Spot and Jack, she saw the serious looks on their faces and knew they were discussing the attacks. Looking over at Diamond, she saw the girl rubbing her stomach a complete look of misery on her face. Nudging Sorrow, she leaned close to the other girl's ear.
"What's her deal?" Sorrow pursed her lips thoughtfully.
"I'd tell ya what I think, but it ain't none of my business. She ain't said nothin' yet, but maybe she'll tell you. She holds ya in high regard. You did win Brooklyn over." Sorrow's eyes flickered towards Spot and back. Nodding and sighing, Sadie rose and approached Diamond who looked up at her dully.
"Let's go talk." The taller girl nodded and pausing to swing a jacket around her shoulders along with Jack's cowboy hat, they trooped out of the lodging house onto the street. Burying her hands in the large jacket she herself wore, Sadie whistled a little tune as they trudged along enjoying the orange light of the setting sun. A cold wind bit at their cheeks and tore at their hair. Sadie paused in the sanctuary of an alleyway to light a cigarette.
"Okay Diamond," she said waving the smoking match before dropping it onto the sidewalk. Diamond waited expectantly, dread shining in her blue eyes.
"What the hell is going on?" Kicking at a piece of trash, the redhead sighed heavily and scowled.
"You of all people I do not want to be telling this to." Taken aback, Sadie raised her eyebrows as Diamond continued on.
"I'm sure you can understand that when Spot and I were together we were, ah...Intimate." Color bloomed high on the girl's cheeks and she ducked her eyes towards her feet. Sadie had had no illusions about the fact that Spot and Diamond probably had slept together. Her and Spot hadn't done so as of yet, she had the feeling he was taking it slow thinking she had never done anything of the sort. Snorting to herself, she shook her head. 'Boy won't he be surprised', she thought. There were many things Sadie didn't know about the Brooklyn leader but likewise, there were many things he didn't know about her either.
"Yeah, so? I won't hold that against ya." Diamond took a deep breath and lifted her chin to look Sadie in the eyes squarely.
"Maybe not that, but you will this. Sure, me and Cowboy have been together but I found out just recently that I'm going to have a baby. And it ain't Jack's." Sadie felt the cigarette drop out of her fingers and her mouth fall just as far. Looking at the beautiful, miserable girl standing in the cold night air, wringing her hands with an apologetic look on her face, Sadie suddenly felt nothing for her but a keen sense of jealousy.
"Look I know you're mad, and I wasn't going to tell ya, but shit it would be hard to hide in a few months. I counted the last time I got my monthlies and it stopped a month before I left Brooklyn to be with Jack. I thought it was from lack of food at the time. Sometimes that would happen to me. I didn't start getting sick in the mornings until a few weeks ago. At first I thought it was the flu, or cholera, or typhoid. God knows I wish it were now. But then my friend Harriet sat me down and asked me if I had been seeing anyone. Said I had the 'glow' that most pregnant women get." Sadie barely listened to the other girl rattle on, nerves shot.
'It wasn't fair'. The thought came to her mind unbidden. Somewhere in her head and heart she felt an acute sense of sympathy for Diamond being a young girl, unmarried, with a child on the way. She was barely able to support herself let alone a baby. She also had to be unsure as to how Jack would take it. Would he reject her once he found out it was Spot's? Would she try to pass it off as his? Then like an arrow, something icy cold struck her deep in her chest.
What would Spot do? Surely he wouldn't demand to take Diamond back with him to Brooklyn. He had to care about Sadie enough not to feel obligated to try to be with Diamond once more for the baby's sake. Would he even care that she was with child? Her mind raced back to the conversation they had had only just this morning about children. He had adamantly stated that he wasn't ready for them and didn't want them. This would be a heavy blow to his lifestyle. Not just his, but everyone around them. Sadie suddenly realized that Diamond had grown silent, her eyes fixed on Sadie's face.
"Sadie?" The tentative question hung in the air between them. Sadie wanted to be angry, wanted to strike out at the other girl. But she knew that she had no right. What had happened between Diamond and Spot had happened before she came along. Any repercussions of that relationship she would help Spot through if he wanted. But she'd be damned if she lost him back to Diamond after she had won him only so recently.
"I don't want Spot back Sadie." The quiet statement was enough to make Sadie jerk her eyes up to Diamond's thin face. Flushing with shame, Sadie hung her head. Feeling a hand on her shoulder, she looked up once more.
"I just want this baby to be healthy, and I want Jack to stay with me. I gave up Spot willingly, for a reason. We weren't meant to be. I would never try to lie to myself just for that extra security." Sadie suddenly found herself wrapping her arms around the other girl's body.
"Everything will be okay, Diamond." Her murmured words of comfort made Diamond finally lose what little hold she had on her frazzled emotions, and she let out a half-choked sob. Rocking the taller girl back and forth, she whispered comforting things to her while Diamond wept onto Sadie's shoulder. Pulling away finally, the other girl wiped her eyes on her sleeve.
"We should probably get back. They'll think we got into a scrape or something." Sadie made a scoffing noise, but Diamond fondly wagged her finger at the short girl.
"You're nickname ain't Trouble for nothing, there girlie." Laughing, the two made their way back to the lodging house, their thoughts swirling about them like a thick mist after it rained.

"'Ey there you two are! We thought something horrible had happened. Since you went off with Trouble, y'know," Sadie swatted at Kid Blink who grinned and feinted a punch at her arm. The poker game had begun to wind down, the largest pile of change sitting in front of a beaming Specs who was fending off Racetrack's attempts at trying to get him to play other gambling games.
"Craps? Black Jack? Spades? Come ON Specs, you can't stop now." Specs swept the money into his cap and looked down at Race with a smirk on his face.
"I can, and I will."
"Ah go soak your head then, ya bum."
The newsgirls had long since migrated to their own bunkroom, Diamond joining them after kissing Jack good night. Sadie watched them; her mind focused on the secret that she had been told. She would bet a week's worth of wages that Jack didn't know yet. Spot and her got ready to take the short walk back to her mother's place where they would be spending the night. There were no extra bunks in the Manhattan lodging house. After the strike there had been a swelling of new newsies joining the ranks of all the boroughs. More came trickling in each day. Spot made sure he had his cane tucked into his belt loop and Sadie fussed over him, buttoning up the new coat he had bought a few days ago. Spot was on a lucky streak down at the races. The night before hadn't been the first time this week he'd struck gold betting on horses. They both knew that it would end just as suddenly as it had started. That was the way of the gambling world. Whatever you won could be lost just as fast.
"Stoppit woman, you ain't my mother."
"Thank God for that." Spot sniffed at her pointedly.
"I can't imagine any adult being able to handle a child such as you must have been." Spot shrugged.
"Things change y'know. I wasn't always like this." Sadie gave him a distrusting look and he barked out a hoarse laugh, tucking her hand into his and into his pocket as they started their walk.
"From what I can remember I was an easy going kid. Shit was never happy, but I was usually capable of doin' what I was told. Didn't get my attitude problem till after my parents died, and they stuck me in an orphanage." Shuddering, he released Sadie's hand long enough to light a cigarette.
"And you wonder why I hate nuns." Sadie rolled her eyes.
"Not all of them are doing the Devil's work, Conlon. On the contrary, some of them are actually here in the service of our Lord." Spot snorted. Sadie had been raised a strict Catholic in Boston, her mother's rigidly Roman Catholic Irish family always on hand to school her and her brother Jeremiah in the catechism.
"I used to go to church I think. Least, I can remember goin' there with my parents. After they died though and I was stuck with them bitches," catching Sadie's raised eyebrow, he lifted his hands up in appeasement.
"Okay, okay. With them nuns," raising his own eyebrows at her mockingly, he continued when she nodded.
"They sucked the hope right out of me they did. That's been my motto for a long time y'know. Too much faith, not enough hope. Seems like people can always sit around and say, 'Don't you worry lad life won't be hard forever. Keep the faith, you'll see'. But there's only so long faith can carry ya when you've lost hope that it's going to work." Sadie was struck speechless by his sudden outpouring of emotion. Spot must have noticed because he squeezed her hand tightly.
"I don't know what it is about you Trouble. You make me feel like I can say whatever I want, and not feel like an ass." Sadie gave him a sweet smile, and raised her finger to her lips as they neared the tailor's shop. Taking a key out of her pocket, she unlocked the door and led him through the bottom floor of the shop. Silently they made their way up the stairs where she unlocked the apartment door and let him in. Her mother, anticipating that they would return late had left out a loaf of bread and some cheese which they gratefully scoffed down, stopping only to swig water out of a jug. Sadie marveled at the fact that her mother would be okay with her only daughter running around with such a notorious character as Spot Conlon. But like her brother Jeremiah had said after he had met him, ' I knew you'd be safe with him', a sentiment she knew her mother shared.
As proper as her mother believed Sadie to be, Sadie had a few tricks of her own up her sleeve to play. Pulling Spot along into her bedroom, she separated the blankets on the bed, laying one down onto the floor over a thickly braided cloth rug.
"For later," she whispered to Spot. He quirked an eyebrow at her in question, but understood that she meant he would have to move to the floor come morning so her mother wouldn't find him sharing a bed with Sadie.
Shivering in the chilly room, they quickly took off as many articles of clothing as they dared without removing enough to freeze to death. Clambering into the bed, Spot pulled Sadie close as she draped the quilt over them. Planting a chaste kiss on her forehead, he almost immediately fell asleep. Sadie grinned in the darkness. She knew how tired he got when his infamous bouts of insomnia finally settled back into submission. When he wasn't selling, he was usually sleeping, storing up energy for the next attack. Snuggling down into the crook of his arm, laying her head on his chest, she lay awake far into the night unable to sleep.